“In fact, I think it was exactly the right decision,” Soon-Shiong told The L.A. Times in an Oct. 25 interview. “The process was [to decide] how do we actually best inform our readers? And there could be nobody better than us who try to sift the facts from fiction” and let readers make their own decisions.
He told The L.A. Times he felt that endorsing a candidate might only serve to exacerbate already deep divisions in the country.
The decision announced on Oct. 23 against making an endorsement in the presidential race—an endorsement that was poised to go to Democrat Kamala Harris—has had repercussions for the editorial board.
On Oct. 24, two members of the editorial board—Robert Greene and Karin Klein—resigned. Editorial page editor Mariel Garza resigned on Oct. 23 after Soon-Shiong’s decision was announced.
Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner, told the Columbia Journalism Review that he was “deeply disappointed” in Soon-Shiong’s decision against an endorsement.
He conceded “that it is the owner’s decision to make.”
“But it hurt particularly because one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has demonstrated such hostility to principles that are central to journalism—respect for the truth and reverence for democracy,” Greene said.
Klein wrote on Facebook that she also respects the right of the paper’s owner to “interfere with editorials.”
“What steams me is that a decision against an editorial at this point is actually a decision to do an editorial—a wordless one, a make-believe-invisible one that unfairly implies that [Harris] has grievous faults that somehow put her on a level with Donald Trump,” she wrote. “And [it] hits just at the time when she cannot afford hits. Patrick Soon-Shiong is doing the opposite of the neutrality he said he was seeking. Enough. Done.”
Soon-Shiong wrote on social media platform X on Oct. 23 that the editorial board had been asked to craft an analysis of the positives and negatives of each presidential candidate’s policies, but said the board “chose to remain silent.”
Soon-Shiong told Spectrum News on Oct. 24 that he wanted to publish such an analysis so voters could decide for themselves.
“I want us desperately to air all the voices on the opinion side, on the op-ed side,” he said. “I don’t know how [readers] look upon me or our family as ‘ultra progressive’ or not, but I’m an independent.”
Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that she believed it was wrong for the paper to stay “silent” on the presidential election during such “dangerous times.”
“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” she said. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
Garza said she had already begun crafting the paper’s editorial endorsing Harris.
On Oct. 25, the Board of Directors of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Los Angeles Pro Chapter issued a statement urging Soon-Shiong to “reconsider and reverse” his decision against making an endorsement.
“Considering everything that the Times opinion section has published about the threat to democracy of another Trump administration, it is inexplicable and irresponsible that on the threshold of the most consequential election of our lifetime, the leading newspaper not just in our region, but in the Western United States, would suddenly and mysteriously fall silent,” according to the SPJ board.
The board of the L.A. Times Guild, which represents the paper’s journalists, issued a statement on Oct. 23 expressing concern about the decision to withhold an endorsement, then said it was “more concerned that [Soon-Shiong] is now unfairly assigning blame to editorial board members for his decision.”
On Oct. 24, the Guild issued a plea to readers who have said they plan to cancel their L.A. Times subscriptions in response, saying such a move would negatively impact newsroom journalists who have no involvement with editorials.
“That subscription underwrites the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom,” the Guild stated. “Our member-journalists work every day to keep readers informed during these tumultuous times. A healthy democracy is an informed democracy.”
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Washington Post Publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
The paper reported, citing unnamed sources, that the decision came directly from the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
